Page 45 of Our Forever Starts Tonight

Aria

Hearing the strain in Tristan’s voice, I turned around so that I was facing him, and he let out a sigh of relief. There were beads of sweat licking at the edges of his hair and he was releasing clenched fists.

“Are you claustrophobic or something?” I asked at his obvious discomfort.

“Sure,” he said. “Let’s go with that.”

“Okay? I’ve turned around. We’re stuck in here, so what did you want to talk about?” I asked.

His eyes went wide. “Really?”

I shrugged. “What else are we going to do?”

We were nearly face to face, in fact, if it wasn’t for the height difference, our faces would probably be touching. Making everything worse was the fact that Tristan looked incredible in an understated outfit of gray sweatpants and a black t-shirt. He normally dressed way up, wearing multiple layers and bright colors, but the simple look was good on him too.

I stood there, waiting for him to say something, but he just stared down at me with an intense gaze that made my skin burn. “If you keep looking at me like that, I’m turning back around.”

Tristan shook his head. “That isnota good idea.”

“Why?” I said. “So you can keep staring at me until my resistance has waned?”

He raised an eyebrow. “Would that work? Because I’ll do it.”

Scoffing at him, I started to twist my body around again, in spite of Tristan begging me not to. It was stupid for me to even consider giving him a chance to speak up anyway, so if he was just going to play games, I wasn’t going to play them with him. I turned until I was facing the door again and pressed myself as far forward as I could, but it didn’t create any space between us. We were still touching.

“Aria, please, I’m begging you to turn back around,” Tristan huffed into my ear.

“No. I’m not falling for that.” I forced as much severity into my voice as I could, knowing full well that I was at a disadvantage.Iwas the one that had feelings for Tristan unimpeded by any friends or need to maintain some dumb status quo. If he continued to look at me like that, or even if he continued to talk to me in that husky, attractive voice, I was likely to give in. “Just sit still and be quiet until Mrs. Hammerskill comes back.”

Though I could hear him straining behind me, he listened to the directive and stopped talking. I tried to imagine in my mind how long it would take Mrs. Hammerskill to notice that Tristan and I weren’t outside with the rest of the class. We were on the top floor in one of the back classrooms, and with everyone flooding out of the school at the same time, they probably weren’t even outside yet. Then once they were out there, before jumping to any conclusions, Mrs. Hammerskill would likely look around to see if she saw Tristan and me first before coming up to investigate.

Minimum we were stuck in there for at least fifteen minutes, but it was probably going to be closer to twenty or thirty.

The real question was, would my resolve last that long?

We stood in silence for about five minutes and I was committing myself to just remaining motionless and speechless until we were discovered, when all of a sudden, I felt a poke behind me, right at my ass. My heart started to beat a little faster as my mind jumped to conclusions, but I tried to shove that idea out of my mind.

“Did you move?” I asked.

“No,” Tristan replied, sounding defeated, almost as if he knew where my mind had already gone.

“Then…”

Almost like he wanted to prove it, Tristan shifted slightly to the side and the bulge poking at my back moved with him.

Itwaswhat I thought it was.

I glanced back over my shoulder and he was straining just like he had been before. Goosebumps covered my skin and images of my dream from a few weeks prior and when we’d made out came flying to my mind. “Are you serious?”

“Itoldyou to turn around. What do you want from me?” he huffed back.

I rolled my eyes. “I’m surprised you can get it up for a fat girl.”

Tristan’s hands came up and settled on either side of me. “I shouldn’t have said that, Aria. Nothing could be further from the truth, I…” He let out a breath and it was hot against my neck, elevating my own feelings. “I think you’re sexy.”

The word hissed across his lips like a commandment and it started to turn me on. It was the same way he sounded in my dream and there was nothing I wanted more than to be able to indulge in him. I tried to remind myself this washisfault, but in that moment, all I could think about was how close we were and the fact that I couldn’t second-guess his words with his arousal stabbing me.

Unable to take the feeling of it, I turned around and looked up at him. “Really?”

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